Sidra Medical and Research Center (Sidra) has announced the appointment of Dr Abdulla al-Kaabi, the executive vice chief medical officer of Sidra, and Dr Elizabeth Cannon, president and vice-chancellor of the University of Calgary in Canada, as members of its board of governors.
Since joining Sidra in 2013, Dr al-Kaabi has held several key positions such as member of the office of the CEO and acting CMO.
Under Dr al-Kaabi’s leadership as acting CMO, Sidra has witnessed the opening of the outpatient clinic and the opening plan for the phasing-in of the inpatient services.
He has led the Paediatric Clinical Planning Group and the formation of the National Plan for Paediatric Services.
Dr al-Kaabi is also an associate professor of clinical paediatrics at Weill Cornell Medicine in Qatar.
Dr Cannon is the eighth president and vice-chancellor of the University of Calgary.
She is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, Canadian Academy of Engineering and the US Institute of Navigation, as well as an elected foreign associate of the National Academy of Engineering.
An expert in geomatics engineering and a professional engineer, Dr Cannon’s research has been on the forefront of Global Positioning Systems (GPS) since 1984 in both industrial and academic environments.
She has commercialised the technology to over 200 agencies worldwide.
Lord Darzi of Denham, the vice chair of the board of governors and the chair of the executive committee at Sidra, said the appointment of innovative leaders from the healthcare and academic sector like Dr Abdulla al-Kaabi and Dr Elizabeth Cannon to the Sidra board came at an exciting time of growth and development at Sidra.
“Dr al-Kaabi’s contribution towards building the healthcare sector in Qatar will play an important role in shaping Sidra’s services to the community and beyond.
Dr Cannon’s guidance will be valuable to Sidra’s strategy in developing our own innovation programmes as well as academic pursuits and partnerships.”
Nationally, Dr al-Kaabi is recognised for his sizeable contributions to healthcare and has held several key administrative and clinical leadership roles in Qatar.
He established Qatar’s paediatric renal transplant programme and set up the country’s first paediatric haemodialysis unit at HMC.
He sits on the board of Qatar Biobank and the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners.
Dr al-Kaabi is also a board member of the Joint Oversight Board of the University of Calgary in Qatar.
Dr Cannon’s work has been recognised with many national and international honours including the Johannes Kepler Award from the US Institute of Navigation, APEGA’s Centennial Leadership Award and the Gold Medal Award from Engineers Canada in 2013.
Prior to her appointment as president, Dr Cannon was dean of the Schulich School of Engineering at the University of Calgary.